Month: September 2003

America’s hidden battlefield toll. The true scale of American casualties in Iraq is revealed today by new figures obtained by The Observer, which show that more than 6,000 American servicemen have been evacuated for medical reasons since the beginning of the war, including more than 1,500 American soldiers who have been wounded, many seriously.

The figures will shock many Americans, who believe that casualties in the war in Iraq have been relatively light. Recent polls show that support for President George Bush and his administration’s policy in Iraq has been slipping. (link)

The human cost of this war is far greater even than the monetary cost. Support the troops – bring them home safe now! [Al-Muhajabah’s Islamic Blogs]

That’s an awful lot of non-wounded medical evacuations. Problems with the heat, perhaps? Very few Americans live in places where the temperature gets as high as it does in Iraq.

I suspect this war may have a rather negative effect on Bush’s re-election. The last presidential election had the deciding electoral votes determined by a statistical tie–which makes various small interest groups important. One of the groups that Bush had going for him last time was the military, whose members were tired of being having their families broken up and being sent of to various third-world hellholes for the greater glory of President Clinton and the UN. Bush promised to end Clinton’s imperial overreach and adopt a “more humble” foreign policy, so he got military votes. However, in practice, Bush has not ended but extended Clinton’s imperial foreign policy. I think in the next election our military personnel may well demonstrate that they are no more eager to have their lives messed up for the greater glory of President Bush and the neocons.

Five More Months of This?!?!. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has just ruled that the California recall must be postponed, due to concerns over hanging chads and suchlike. The ruling (which you can read here) is likely to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Recall legal blogger Rick Hasen will likely have interesting observations throughout the day. [Hit & Run]

I guess I spoke too soon when I commented that it was a good thing Davis couldn’t just have the recall petition thrown out, as Hugo Chavez did. This isn’t exactly the same tactic, but it’s pretty close.

A monster awakens? [Online Journal]

Apparently there’s been some unusual activity recently under Yellowstone. The article also explains what would happen if Yellowstone erupted–basically, the end of the world. Yellowstone is due for an eruption at any time, but fortunately “any time” on a geologic time scale could easily mean “not for another 50,000 years.”

Did the Framers Favor Hard Money?. The Old Republican leader John Randolph, the aristocratic liberal from Virginia, once famously remarked that the framers intended ours to be “a hard-money government.” Is it true? Contrary to the efforts of academics and judges to obscure this issue, the framers’ intentions in regard to money and banking were quite plain and are easily reconstructed.

On balance, the framers’ views can be summarized as follows. On the one hand, they believed in fractional-reserve banking, generally following Adam Smith’s currency and banking theories. On the other hand, they were resolutely opposed to government-issued paper money, fiat money, legal tender laws, inconvertible paper currency, and land banks. On the question of a national bank, they were divided, but they all believed in a hard dollar (defining the dollar as a certain weight of silver and/or gold). On a spectrum, their views would be closer to those of Murray Rothbard and Ron Paul than John Maynard Keynes and Alan Greenspan. [Ludwig von Mises Institute]

Just What We Need: Another “Czar”. Only one hour after posting this (on Internet policing and preaching), I saw this. The White House (Dept. of Homeland Security) now has a Cybersecurity Czar. He’s a former Symantec executive named Amit Yoran. Yoran “will be the government’s evangelist… [LewRockwell.com Blog]

I certainly hope Symantec makes sure to distance itself from this guy. Otherwise it’s likely to hurt sales with people who have enough sense to recognize that the Feds are far more of a threat to “cybersecurity” than some teenage hacker.

PATRIOTic Mission Creep. “New Terror Laws Used Vs. Common Criminals” reads the AP headline.

How is the PATRIOT Act is being stretched by law enforcement types? As Stan Lee used to say, “Read on MacDuff”:

In the two years since law enforcement agencies gained fresh powers to help them track down and punish terrorists, police and prosecutors have increasingly turned the force of the new laws not on al-Qaida cells but on people charged with common crimes.

Federal prosecutors used the act in June to file a charge of “terrorism using a weapon of mass destruction” against a California man after a pipe bomb exploded in his lap, wounding him as he sat in his car.

The most disturbing element of the story may be the charge leveled by a spokesman for a criminal defense attorneys organization:

“Within six months of passing the Patriot Act, the Justice Department was conducting seminars on how to stretch the new wiretapping provisions to extend them beyond terror cases,” said Dan Dodson, a spokesman for the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys. “They say they want the Patriot Act to fight terrorism, then, within six months, they are teaching their people how to use it on ordinary citizens.”

Which should leave PATRIOT Act defenders and critics alike wondering where we’ll be in a few more years’ time, especially if the sunset provisions in the original act are amended. [Hit & Run]

Democrats committing political suicide with gun laws. Talked briefly over the weekend with Chrissy Gephardt, daughter of Democratic Presidential candidate Dick Gephardt.  She is working for her father’s campaign so I tried to offer at least one helpful suggestion:  “You dad doesn’t have a prayer unless he becomes a pro-gun Democrat.”
Why does the rabble vote Republican?  This question has been looked at in this blog before, in the posting entitled “Democrats = mediocrity; Republicans = lottery ticket”.  It might be too much to ask Democrats to give up their devotion to mediocrity and pandering to public employee unions.  But shutting up about gun laws would be a small change that would yield an enormous number of voters.
Why are gun laws so important?  Consider Johnny Paycheck.  He has no freedom of speech, at least if he wants to keep his job.  He has no freedom of action; a hierarchy of managers tells him what to do all day every day.  Johnny Paycheck has no wealth; all of his income goes for rent and payments on his SUV.  He has no pension; his retirement mutual fund is being eviscerated by managerial looting at American public companies.  Johnny spends about 40% of his income on various taxes so that rich people don’t have to pay taxes.
Why does Johnny support the Republicans then, the party of corporate looters and tax cuts for rich people?  He expects rich people and the government to take away all of his money and freedom, regardless of which party is in power.  The difference to him is that the Republicans will allow him to keep his gun, the one shred of personal dignity that he has left.  The Democrats want to take away Johnny’s gun, his last vestige of personal freedom and manhood.
Perhaps if gun laws made a difference alienating half of America’s voters might be worthwhile.  It would be nice to strip America’s underclass of their ability to perpetrate violence.  But the gun laws proposed by the election-losing Democrats are feeble pathetic measures that serve only to annoy gun nuts.
You can have a powerful semi-automatic rifle… but it can’t look exactly like a military “assault rifle”.  You can get a machine gun but you need to fill out some forms.  You can buy a pistol but unless you fill out the right forms you can only kill 5 people with it before popping in another magazine.  These then are the achievements for which the Democrats have sacrificed their relevance to American government.
Gephardt’s Web site doesn’t put the harassment of gun lovers #1 on his agenda but it is there and that is enough to lose him any election.  His charming daughter is clearly ready to follow him into politics because she managed to ignore the idea without anyone liking her less… [Philip Greenspun Weblog]

Here’s something you don’t see every day–a socialist making an arguement from a liberal elitist viewpoint for why the Democrats should stop pushing for gun control. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an arguement against gun control combined with such contempt for the American people before.

A Letter to Our Government – hilarious satire. [stanleyscoop]
bq.
Dear Sir,

My friend, Ed Peterson, over at Wells, Iowa, received a check for
$1,000 from the government for not raising hogs. So I want to go into
the “not raising hogs” business next year. What I want to know is, in
your opinion, what is the best kind of farm not to raise hogs on, and
what is the best breed of hogs not to raise?
[End the War on Freedom]

Back to the signing board.

The Venezuelan Electoral Board decided today to reject the signatures submitted by the opposition to request a recall referendum for President Hugo Chavez. The expected decision was based on a number of technicalities, which will certainly be challenged by someone in the opposition. Prominently among them, the CNE cited that the request for a referendum has to be addressed to the Electoral body, which was not done in the petition submitted by the opposition. Additionally, the CNE ruled that the gathering of the petition was untimely, colliding with the time frame established by the Constitution for requesting a recall referendum. Finally, the CNE said the data contained in the petition itself was insufficient.

 Rumors of the negative decision by the CNE were widespread all week, as the recommendation by the legal department of the electoral body had leaked to the press. Súmate and the Democratic Coordinator have already drawn plans to gather the signatures anew, an event which is now planned for September 28^th., as long as the CNE issues the regulations before that date, which it ahs promised to do.

The decision falls within the Government’s strategy of delaying the recall referendum using legal maneuvers. In this case, the law limited the length of the possible delay by the fact that the CNE had to reply to the request for the referendum within thirty days.

From the point of view of the opposition the decision might actually be quite positive, despite the delay it implies. By gathering the signatures again, the opposition will adjust the petition to the CNE’s requirements, making it more difficult for the Chavistas to question it legally later, and in effect shielding the petition from legal questioning. Similarly, by holding a new “Firmazo”, where the signatures will be massively gathered on a single day, that public display will become in itself a judgment on the Government. In February, the opposition gathered over 3 million signatures of which Súmate certified 2.8 million in its audit; this is 20% more signatures than required to validly request a referendum. Given the increased dissatisfaction and frustration with the Government and the continued deterioration of the economy, the opposition might gather more signatures this time than the votes necessary to recall Chavez’ mandate. Under the Bolivarian Constitution more voters have to vote for the recall than the number of votes received by the officer when he was elected.

I will comment more on the decision tomorrow when I have the full text. I am concerned about some of the reasons given, it seems to me that technicalities not previously defined by the law have been considered more important than the will and rights of close to three million people. [Miguel Octavio: Venezuela]

I guess Californians can at least be glad that Davis wasn’t able to have his recall petition arbitrarily declared invalid.

Free Market Advocates Fight Back at WTO. After days of anti-free trade protests at the WTO conference, including a protest featuring nude activists and another involving a suicide, free market advocates responded in kind on Thursday.

They staged several counter demonstrations and street-theater stunts, drawing the ire of anti-globalization protestors and environmentalists.

At a mock awards ceremony sponsored by a coalition of free market groups, actors playing the grim reaper handed out “awards” to environmental groups and other organizations that they accuse of promoting “poverty, misery, disease and premature death to billions of people in developing countries.” [Cybercast News Service]